Grier-Southwest set to meet for 2013 Gaston County boys basketball title game

By Richard Walker

Published: Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 03:44 PM.

GASTONIA – It’s a rare rematch in which the lower-seeded team is the favorite against the top-seeded team.

But that’s will be in play Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Hunter Huss High School when regular-season champion Southwest (10-1) hosts Grier (9-2) for the 2013 Gaston County Middle School boys basketball championship.

Grier actually hasn’t lost a game on the court, but had to forfeit its first two victories of the season due to an ineligible player. And among the Knights’ season-ending nine-game winning streak was an emphatic 63-38 home victory over Southwest last Monday.

“Our strategy the first time was to create and up-and-down game,” said Southwest coach Brad Sloan, who has guided the Roadrunners to 94 victories and three county titles in his 14 seasons as head coach. “Clearly, we’re going to try and make some adjustments.”

Grier’s exceptional size and athleticism have made the Knights runaway winners in all 11 games they’ve played this season. In fact, including the games it later had to forfeit, only the Cramerton (64-43) and Southwest (63-38) games were decided by 25 points or less.

“These kids have improved so much and been such a pleasure to coach,” said first-year Grier coach Guy Spader, who had guided York Chester to a 25-9 record from 2005-07. “The basketball IQ with this team is really high and you can tell they’ve played a lot of basketball.

GASTONIA – It’s a rare rematch in which the lower-seeded team is the favorite against the top-seeded team.

But that’s will be in play Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Hunter Huss High School when regular-season champion Southwest (10-1) hosts Grier (9-2) for the 2013 Gaston County Middle School boys basketball championship.

Grier actually hasn’t lost a game on the court, but had to forfeit its first two victories of the season due to an ineligible player. And among the Knights’ season-ending nine-game winning streak was an emphatic 63-38 home victory over Southwest last Monday.

“Our strategy the first time was to create and up-and-down game,” said Southwest coach Brad Sloan, who has guided the Roadrunners to 94 victories and three county titles in his 14 seasons as head coach. “Clearly, we’re going to try and make some adjustments.”

Grier’s exceptional size and athleticism have made the Knights runaway winners in all 11 games they’ve played this season. In fact, including the games it later had to forfeit, only the Cramerton (64-43) and Southwest (63-38) games were decided by 25 points or less.

“These kids have improved so much and been such a pleasure to coach,” said first-year Grier coach Guy Spader, who had guided York Chester to a 25-9 record from 2005-07. “The basketball IQ with this team is really high and you can tell they’ve played a lot of basketball.

“But we’ve got one more really important game to go.”

Grier has some history with getting this far, though they lost 27-25 to Mount Holly in last year’s title game to ruin what had been a perfect season for the Knights.

“After the forfeits early in the season, every game was important for us just to make sure we made the playoffs,” Spader said. “But some of the kids have been talking about last year and how they want to get back and change that outcome.”

Knights’ leading scorer Jordan Diggs (19.1 points per game) is the lone starter back from that team, but five others (M.J. Armstrong, Tremayne Booker, Nate Hinton, Chris Moore and Thomas Smith) also were on the team.

For Southwest, which has won nine county titles, three players have led the team – Quan McCluney (13.5 scoring average), Antwanez Barnett (11.5) and Cress Worthy (11.5).

… The girls county title game between Friday (10-1) and Grier (11-0) will be played Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Ashbrook High School.